Middle East

Security workers demand wages and arrest of colleagues’ killers.Yesterday, Monday 6 February, around one hundred workers demonstrated in front of the parliament buildings, in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen. They were demanding unpaid wages and seeking justice for their murdered colleagues. Their original employers, the multinational oil corporation, TOTAL, and its subcontractor, the security company, G4S, robbed over 200 security guard workers of more than one year’s wages, after the companies abandoned most of their economic activities in the country in 2015

The protesters shouted slogans against TOTAL and G4S, demanding their wages, as well as seeking the arrest of the killers of three of their colleagues. The slain workers were shot dead, last December, by an armed gang with shadowy connections to the local management of TOTAL (for more background to this story, see the previous statement from the workers, and this article written by a journalist from TRT World).

Workers at the protest yesterday talked to the CWI. They said that people in the streets expressed warm sympathy for their action. They noted that confidence is growing among the workers and their families to step up their campaign for justice.

The CWI fully supports the campaign and is looking at the possibility of coordinating further actions on this issue with the Yemeni workers. More reports will be published on socialistworld.net.

Below are a few photographs of yesterday’s protest and of the banners used by the workers. Also attached is a copy of a resolution in support of the Yemeni workers, adopted by the national conference of TUSC (Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition), which met in London on 28 January.